A Washington pro sports team is going to play for a championship.

Washington Spirit will play Portland or Western New York in the Oct. 9 final in Houston. (By Tony Quinn)

With a 2-1 extra-time victory over the Chicago Red Stars on Friday, the Washington Spirit became the first Washington pro sports team to reach a league championship game since …

Well, the Redskins have not gone to the Super Bowl since 1992, and the Nationals are only 11 years old, and the Capitals appeared in the Stanley Cup finals for the only time in 1998, and the Wizards last played for the NBA title as the Bullets in 1979, and D.C. United has gone 12 years without an MLS Cup appearance, and the Mystics have missed out on the WNBA finals in each of their 19 seasons, and the Spirit’s predecessor, the Freedom, claimed the WUSA crown in 2003.

Should we include the Kastles, who won six World Team Tennis trophies in seven years in a league with only six franchises and a season that lasts four weeks? Or the D.C. Divas, the successful women’s football team?

Wherever it belongs, the four-year-old Spirit has written a small chapter in the D.C. sports history books by advancing to the National Women’s Soccer League final for the first time. The Montgomery County-based club will clash with the Portland Thorns or Western New York Flash on Oct. 9 at Houston’s BBVA Compass Stadium. Fox Sports 1 will provide live coverage.

The Spirit lost in the semifinals each of the previous two seasons. (Four of 10 teams make the playoffs.) In 2013, the NWSL’s inaugural year after the WUSA and WPS went under, Washington won three of 22 games.

“I’m really proud of how far we’ve come and where we’re headed,” said captain Ali Krieger, a Prince William County native who has played in two World Cups and one Olympics with the U.S. national team. “It’s a bit emotional because I can go back and remember the first time we didn’t make the playoffs and were like last in the league. And now we’re battling in the final game. It’s just a really good feeling. It’s really rewarding.”

The Spirit roster has local ties. Aside from Krieger (Dumfries), midfielders Joanna Lohman (Silver Spring) and Christine Nairn (Annapolis) and defender Whitney Church (Ashburn) played club and high school soccer in the area. All starred at Penn State. All started Friday. Krieger scored in the 36th minute. Nairn assisted on Francisca Ordega’s go-ahead goal in the 111th minute.

Steven GoffSteven Goff has covered soccer for The Washington Post since the early 1990s. His beats include D.C. United, MLS and the U.S. national teams. He has been on assignment at every World Cup since 1994, plus four Women's World Cups. Follow